The wife of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin dove headlong into a social media skirmish this week, blasting a critic of her Instagram post highlighting her high fashion choices. Calling the commenter "adorably out of touch," Louise Linton suggested she and Mnuchin contributed more to the U.S. economy and paid more in taxes than did her critic.

The drama began Monday when Linton posted a photo of herself getting off a government plane in Kentucky with Mnuchin. In her post, Linton mentioned several designer labels for her white ensemble, including Tom Ford and Valentino.

"Pretty sure the amount we sacrifice per year is a lot more than you'd be willing to sacrifice if the choice was yours," Linton wrote. She went on to call Miller's response "passive aggressive" and "nasty" before ending her retort with a suggestion that Miller "go chill out and watch the new game of thrones."

Miller told CNN she found Linton's original post "incredibly offensive," saying Linton went to a state with high poverty and "chose to brag about her outlandishly expensive clothes. It's more than tone-deaf, it's deplorable."

In her apology, Linton said: "I apologize for my post on social media yesterday as well as my response. It was inappropriate and highly insensitive."

Norm Eisen, President Barack Obama's chief ethics attorney, called Linton a "Marie Antoinette for our age." In an email, he added that in the Bush or Obama administrations, a spouse of an official who replied that way - and the official - "would have been counseled."

The White House referred questions about Linton to the Treasury Department, which said Mnuchin and Linton are reimbursing the government for Linton's travel and that Linton received no compensation from the fashion labels mentioned in her post.

Anita McBride, who served as chief of staff for former first lady Laura Bush, said people in high-level government jobs and their spouses must be careful about their public statements.

"Fairly or unfairly, you are held to a higher standard on how to respond and what kind of dialogue you should engage in," she said. "Don't take the bait."